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Yashica Vashishtha

Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.

Mozilla & Chrome Supports the Latest Transport Layer Security 1.3

Google, News, Tech News / By
firecrome
Image Source : wordpress.com

It has been more than eight years, when the last version of TLS, i.e. TLS 1.2, was updated. TLS stands for Transport Layer Protocol and, is responsible for secure communication between web browser and the server. It took a long time for Internet Engineering Task Force to develop this new encryption protocol update, TLS 1.3. Late but nevertheless, it has come with high-security features and enhanced performance. It uses symmetric cryptography with faster the encrypted connections. Although it is a successor of TLS 1.2, it is loaded with more features.

1) Full Handshake Signature: The TLS 1.2 included a multi-steps communication thread added with renegotiations, that was completed in an average of 300ms. In the latest updated TLS 1.3, the data transmitted by the client to the server comprises the supported cypher, guesses key agreement protocol, key share and sent in one go, at which the server responds by negotiating the security settings, saving the number of steps in the communication thread making the communication faster.

2) Downgrade protection: The earlier version of TLS failed in the case of security as it came to be vulnerable to the downgrade attacks. A downgrade attack includes a middle-person in the client-server communication, who uses the weakest cypher supported by both parties to hack the data. In the TLS 1.3, the server automatically provides a key in the handshake process, the client or the middle-person has no authority to use any older forms of encryption.

Along with the speed and enhanced security features added to the TLS 1.3, it has eliminated a few features that were included in the TLS 1.2, like Static RSA handshake, Compression, Renegotiation, etc. Also, it has been already updated to a few famous browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Even Facebook has already been using it for quite a sometime now.

Security is a must for the data sharing online. The TLS 1.3 claims to give the highest security for the client-server communication, avoiding any kind of vulnerability to the various exploits like SLOTH, Lucky 13, POODLE, CRIME, etc. The TLS 1.3 has been a bit late but is going to last more than 20 years due to its high-security measures and speed.

Caterina Fake : One of the Most Influential Women in Silicon Valley

Founder, start-up, Tech Story / By

In the past more than 15 years, Flickr has been the best Photo and Video hosting platform across the world. It allows you to share and host your pictures online, becoming the most favourite photo sharing website among all. At a time there was nothing like Flickr and then the idea of creating it hit two cleaver minds; Caterina Fake and her ex-husband Stewart Butterfield. Caterina is among the Time’s Magazine’s 2006’s list of 100 Most Influential People and was awarded the Silicon Valley Forum’s Visionary Award (2018).

Early Life

Caterina Fake was born on 13 June 1969, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a child, she had a keen interest in poetry and classical music and was not allowed to watch TV. She became familiar with computers and the internet through her friends.

She went to Choate Rosemary Hall to pursue her high school and attended Vassar College to do her B.A. In English. Meanwhile, she was also an alumnus at Smith College.

Career

Even being an Arts student, her interest in computers and programming, led her to grab a job as the lead designer at one of the first web development companies, named as Organic Online. She worked on the first online ventures of many famous companies including McDonald’s, Nike, Levi’s, etc.

Caterina fake
Image Source: wikimedia.org

Caterina also operated as a research staff member of ‘Interval Research and in 1990, served as the Art Director at Salon.com, where she played a key role in creating an online community, social software, etc. In 1997, Caterina started working at Netscape, managing its community forum.

Founding Flickr and Rise as an Entrepreneur

In 2002, Caterina, along with Stewart Butterfield and Jason Classon, founded a company and, named it Ludicrop. Together, they created a Game Neverending, that they somehow, could not launch. Later, she started working on a new project named as Flickr with Stewart and, launched it on 10 February 2004. Soon after its launch, it became a hit and Yahoo acquired it in 2005 along with Ludicorp, paying an amount of $25 million. Later, Yahoo! added more features to Flickr, like social media integration, community open APIs, tagging, etc to enhance its functionality. In the same year, Caterina also joined Yahoo! as the head of a Technology Development group, Hack Yahoo! along with Brickhouse.

After leaving the job at Yahoo, on 13 June 2008, Caterina started working on a new project named as Hunch, which she co-founded with an entrepreneur Chris Dixon, in June 2009. The website was acquired by eBay in 2011 paying $80 million. In 2012, Fake launched a website named Pinwheel later renamed to Findery, which is her latest venture.

Caterina won Business Week’s Best Leader of 2005, followed by Forbes 2005 eGang and Red Herring’s 20 Entrepreneurs under 35 awards (2005). In 2006, she appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine. She has also received two Doctorate degrees (Honors), one from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2009 and another from The New School 2013.

Caterina was a member of the board of directors of Creative Commons and for a time period, also invested in and chaired the Board of Etsy.

Personal Life

Caterina Fake was married to Stewart Butterfield the co-founder of Flickr and her business partner, for 7 years (2001-2007) and the two have a daughter together. Currently, she is living in San Fransisco, with her boyfriend Jaiku the co-founder of Jyri Engeström and their three children.

Vector: Anki’s New Smart Home Robot

News, Product, Tech News / By
Vector Robot
Image Source: newatlas.com

Artificial Intelligence has inspired many Sci-fi Hollywood films. This time you can say that Anki (Robots and Artificial Intelligence Products manufacturing company) has been inspired by a fictional robot from the science fiction Star Wars. After Anki Drive and Cozmo, Anki has launched its new home robot named Vector which is quite similar to the fictional robot Droid in the movie Star Wars.

Vector is said to be as the elder sibling of Cozmo as it has got additional features. Like Cozmo, it is a tiny robot that can fit into your palm. Vector is like a home robot that will roam around and will give you the feel of a pet. This tiny robot is launched on 8 August 2018, on Kickstarter. It costs near $249 and will be available at a discount for the early buyers. The early-buyer campaign will start on 6 September and will last till 30 September. Vector is on the costly side as Cozmo priced $180, as it is smarter than Cosmo.

1) Look and Size: Vector is a small robot having a height of three inches and can easily fit into your palm. It has got an arm through which it can lift lightweight objects and can respond to your commands. It is so small that sometimes you can miss it on the floor, so it must be allowed to wander on the table or shelves to avoid any kind of damage.

2) No Device Connected: You just need to connect Vector with wifi and rest is on its own. It does not need any tethering device to control it. It is equipped with the 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and is fully autonomous.

3) Designed to Learn: Vector is self-sufficient as it is designed to learn. It is must be kept on all the time so that it walk around and examine things. It will go to the new things it sees, look at them, will try to push and will investigate to know more about them.

4) Functionality: This tiny robot uses its four microphones to figure out the commands, and responds in its robotic voice. With the help of its 120-degree HD camera, it captures the faces and can recognise them later. It can call your name and will respond to your hello. You can ask it about the weather or about some new and it will give you the right answers.

Vector is smarter, yet has got an emotional quotient, as it was designed in the way that people focus on its personality, more than its functionality. Vector can behave like your pet and will play around with you just like Coszmo does. It is respondent to its owner and whirls around when called by him. Also with its touch sensors, it recognises the touch of its owner. It can also make direct eye contact with its high-resolution IPS display that gives a lively feel to its activities. It has got tank-like tread to walk and is rounded out by a 6-Axis IMU.

All in all, Vector is a complete package of a home robot that will roam around and gives you the feel of a companion around you. The robot will be shipped in the October of this year to the backers and its official release date will be October 12, 2018.

Paul Buchheit – Creator and Lead Developer of Gmail

Google, Product, start-up, Story, Tech Story / By

There is no denying in the fact that each of us has used Gmail at least once in our lives and, that fact is proved by the current number of Gmail users, i.e., more than 900 million users. Gmail was launched in 2004, and the lead developer, behind this widely used email platform, is Paul Buchheit. Paul Buchheit is the 23rd employee of Google but, has played a pivotal role in the development of many Google products, in his few years of career with Google.

Paul Buchheit
Image Source: Facebook

Early Life

Paul Buchheit was born on 6 November 1976, in Webster, New York. He did his schooling from Webster Thomas High School. He was a brilliant student and always topped the class every year. Later, he entered Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio to pursue a degree in Science followed by a PhD (Honors) degree. During his college, he was in the rowing team of the college.

Career

As soon as Buchheit completed his education, he started his internship at Microsoft, in 1995. In 1998, he joined at Intel and after one year he became the 23rd employee at Google.

He worked with Google for nearly 7 years and, had become an influential part of Google’s numerous revolutionary programs, including Google Adsense. He also gave the suggestion of the motto, “Don’t Do Evil”, that was practised as the code of conduct within Google for many years.

In 2006, Paul Buchheit left the job at Google and launched a real-time social aggregator named FriendFeed which was a huge success. But later in 2009, it was acquired by Facebook through a private transaction. He also worked for Facebook for a few years and left the job in 2010, to start an investment company named Y Combinator.

Paul Buchheit always encourages startup companies saying that startups are more than simply a clever way to make money. Before Y Combinator, he had already invested in 83 startups through Angel Investment, and with Y Combinator he is supporting many budding companies with their startups.

Founding Gmail

Before Gmail was launched, the various email service providers, like Microsoft, had given a limited storage of 4 MB. According to Paul Buchheit, every email service was getting worse instead of getting better. And the lesser storage provided by every email platforms grabbed his attention. The planning of creating Gmail was started many years before it was announced. The development of Gmail started in 2001 and in 2004, Gmail was launched, with increased storage of 1000 MB of storage, fast dynamic interface, quick and accurate search including the concept of organised emails. Even Mr Doerr from Microsoft gave a statement that Gmail was like a wakeup call for them.

Personal Life

Paul married his girlfriend April Buchheit on 10 August 2002. Currently, he is living with his wife and two children in California.

Features of Freshly Launched Samsung Galaxy Note 9

News, Product, Tech News / By
Samsung Galaxy Note 9
Image Source: theverge.com

After the launch of Android Pie on 7 August 2018, now Samsung has come up with the launch of its flagship Smartphone, addition to its Samsung Galaxy 9 family. The smartphone was launched at the Barclays Center in New York. The online booking of the phone is already started and will be available in the market from the 24 August 2018. It is the last member of the Samsung Galaxy 9 family and costlier than the previous editions of the Samsung phones. The cost for the 128GB / 6GB RAM model will start from $999 (Appro. INR 68000) and 512GB / 8GB RAM version for $1,250. (Appro. INR 86000) Yes, you read it right. I don’t know what attracted your attention more the price or space, but both are too high. Along with the increased space, Samsung has launched its new baby with the following features added to it:

Look, Size & Color: The new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is quite a colourful range including Midnight Black, Metallic Copper, Ocean Blue, and Lavender Purple. The famous S Pens of the Note series are of the same colours as the phone, except the Ocean Blue phone is having a yellow stylus. Now talking about the look of the phone, likewise, Note 9 is no different than the Galaxy 8 and 9 series which is a disappointment, but, the size of this phone is little bigger comparatively.

Camera Added With New AI Features: Except the new AI features embedded in it, its camera is no different from the Note S9 camera. It still has the 8-megapixel selfie camera, with the dual 12-megapixel camera on the back. But AI has enabled it to detect what you actually need to capture and bring that thing into focus. It has also got a Flaw Detection feature that prompts when there is a flaw in the captured image, like the blink of the eye. Also, it has got a scene optimizer to adjust the white balance, saturation and contrast. Also, it can identify 20 scenarios like snowflakes, fire, food, pets, sunsets, plants, cityscapes, etc.

Bluetooth Stylus: The Note 9 SPen is all similar to the other SPens of the Note series with an addition of Bluetooth to it. With the help of the Bluetooth, the Stylus is turned into a remote control which can be used to click pictures, slide the presentations, play/pause your music apps and also, you can use it to open any app by creating a shortcut for the apps.

DeX software embedded to Note 9: Now this time the DeX software resides inside the Note 9 phone itself, so you can connect the phone to monitor independently using a USB, for the desktop-experience without a dock.

Samsung has claimed to replace the laptops with their Galaxy Note 9 by including with a high-performance processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and battery is also bigger than before i.e. 4,000-mAh. The position of its Fingerprint reader has also moved to below the camera whereas it was on the side of the camera in the S8 and S9 series. Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will be the last of its series as Samsung has announced the launch of Galaxy S10 by the month of March next year. Till then Note 9 will be their latest innovation of 2018. Though it is on the high end due to its price maybe it will be able to grab customers with its new features.

Android 9 Pie – The Latest Version of Android Hitting the Market

Google, News, Tech News / By

After Oreo, Google is back with its another desert, I mean the latest edition of Android – Android 9 Pie. It was launched on Tuesday and, is already rolling out on Google’s Pixel smartphones and will be available for most Android smartphones by the end of the year. This new version of Android is powered by artificial intelligence and, has come with many additional features that claim to help the users to reduce their smartphone addiction to an extent. Let’s see what Google has brought for us with its latest Android version:

1) App Dashboard: The new features of the Android 9, include an App Dashboard, showing various apps, that you have used, from most to least, the whole day long. The dashboard can also tell the number of times you have unlocked your phone, which can be an eye-opener for many, as people spent a lot of time on their smartphones these days.

2) Digital Well Being: The Digital Wellbeing, display a multicoloured circle, each colour representing a particular app, that you use on the daily basis, and between the circle, the total time, the phone screen is opened. You can tap on the colours, to further see the details about the app and set a limit for its usage.

Android Pie
Image Source: Image Source: Pcmag

3) App Timer: App Timer is another Android feature that will help to decrease your mobile usage. The timer is available on the App Dashboard, and you can set a time limit on a particular app so that when you have reached the limit, the app will grey out and you will not be able to start it again until the next set time.

4) Adaptive Battery: Android has come with another feature of saving the battery that works according to your app preferences. The earlier versions of Android also had a similar feature but in this one, with the aid of artificial intelligence, the phone will adapt your app usage practices and will divide the battery control according to the most to least used apps. This will ensure that the apps you need will use the battery.

5) App Actions: App Action also based on your daily app habits and creates shortcuts for your most used apps and activities you do on an app. It will result in the quick launch for even your daily activity inside a particular app.

Along with all the above features it has got a few more features like Gesture, Wind Down, Do Not Disturb, Adaptive Brightness, New Navigation System, etc. Most of them are using the artificial intelligence for making the smartphones more intimate part of our lives so that it can work according to our habits and can help us reduce our Smartphone addiction. Also by the end of the year, Google is going to add a few more features to Android Pie and Android Pie will be available for most of the Android users by the fall.